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LandonWalsh

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Posts posted by LandonWalsh

  1. Do you solicit your clients' business or they your expertise?

     

    What in the way of people skills does your job require?

    Rephrase the first question, I don't follow...

    The top three skills would be:   Organizational, analytical, and communication skills.     People skills are not a must, but I spend 80% of my day talking to brokers, shippers, and drivers, via phonecall and email so...   You don't have to be the friendliest guy around, but it very much helps... 

    My job consists mostly of negotiation, phonecalls, emails, research, google maps, cussing, putting out fires, and cussings some more..

     

  2. You are hiring for your own interest.  

    The bottom line is and should be:   Does his skill set and behavior benefit your company?     

    The only way his beliefs would change things is if he negotiated with those beliefs as a basis.    All you would have to do is make that clear that kind of negotiation would be unacceptable and you run your business differently..     His results should be easy to indicate if he is following your interests or not.

  3. These fines have to impact costs. Are they factored into the equation as a part of doing business, or does it have to be taken off the bottom line? 

    Taken off the bottom line, and go on their record.

     

    Just to finish this line of thought, Transportation is a case study in Supply/Demand based on Regulations and Licensing.  It's bad when there is the Great Recession going on and yet truck companies cannot staff there trucks.  It is the only job I know where you can put an application online and get ten phone calls in an hour. 

     

    There is a huge shortfall of truck drivers and currently the medical requirements are the fastest growing area of red tape, last DOT physical they checked my tongue size and measured my neck.     Or that you have to go to Government approved doctors now, your Doctor can no longer do DOT accepted physical (so if there is an issue you stop working until you meet the requirements, which means go see your doctor and come back) .  Combine that with the CSA that now tracks drivers scores (decent idea run amok thanks to Government one size fits none policy) or the fact the Government requires licensing requirements which channels people away from appreticeship programs and through multi-thousand dollar "puppy mills" as we call them, and you get the picture. 

     

    Although it must be noted that there is a revolution in worker type going on too.  Most people want to plug in, not go out for several weeks on the road.  It's not an appealing job category to the next generation of worker and that was before you put demands on the system. 

     

     Spot on.  Yeah its hard to keep up with all the many many many different ways the government screws with the Transportation industry.     I've actually been trying to keep notes on all the ways and ask drivers whenever I can what's the worst things they deal with.

    Another thing to put things into perspective is the total Profit the government makes off fuel taxes runs around $1.25/gallon, while the gross profit for the companies responsible for pulling it out of the earth, refining it, and paying for it's transportation, is around .47 cents.    Yes Obama them Oil companies are making out like bandits...  O.o

    Also since i'm a Hazmat Specialist one thing I hear A LOT is how most drivers do not want to run Hazmat(even when I pay TOP DOLLAR) because they can't afford to be a rolling "DOT Bullseye".    For those who don't know...   The DOT specifically targets Hazmat shipments for additional inspections.

  4. Exactly. And to expand my maybe-too-cryptic point above ("our house our rules"), it's simply unrealistic to imagine that any government-financed institution will remain free for very long. Voters won't put up with their money going someplace they don't like, and the politicians will come in and make a career out of it, and so forth. Private schools that start taking vouchers will be defacto government schools within a decade or sooner. Vouchers are just a way to slowly-but-surely turn private schools into government-run schools (and Charters are just a way to instantly turn private schools into a public schools).

     

    I dread the day my fellow parents greedily accept a discount on their school tuition in exchange for their long-term freedom. They will have sold their future for a trifle.

    Zing!   Yeah, this is what I realized the moment I watched Yaron's video.     Vouchers sound nice.    But you could not put a more destructive gun to the head of private schools and also your long term goals.  

  5.  

    Since we're talking about our own guesses as to what will happen in the future, has it occurred to anybody to look at, I don't know, evidence?

     

    Everything I've seen (too lazy to look it up right now) show charters and vouchers drastically increasing the number of government-financed religious schools.

     

    I'm not getting the connection between changing school's curriculum and whatnot and changing their financing structure. Schools aren't the way they are because the government pays for them. That has nothing to do with it...

     

    I've always thought Vouchers were a good idea, because it could give parents choice and break up the government monopoly...  Which it may do.
    However, it has been years since I've re-examined the issue under different perspective and I found that Yaron makes a good point here:

     


    Yaron is spot on with his examination...  Maybe it is not the best solution.   Now im not sure if there could be a more politically achievable transitional voucher that didn't come with all the problems discussed, and this could be debated till the cows come home but it is not really the point of me posting this.


    So lets keep on point with the real issue and mark out/replace: "the promotion of Rational Private Schooling, Rational  Homeschooling, and the Voucher Program getting government out of education." 


    The subject here is that out of all the political "issues" to tackle, Reason and Freedom in education is the most important because of both the destruction public schools have caused to children's(and later adults) minds and the Marketability of a Rational Education option to parents.
  6. Interesting. Ayn Rand said these things were because of philosophy. Anyhow...

     

    Sending all kids to private schools (which have a far-higher propensity to be religious schools for instance) will make things worse, not better.

     

    You want to give a bunch of anti-conceptual dumb-dumb parents the ability to think up anything they imagine sounds like "school" and send their kids there. Many of them will inevitably send their kids to far-worse than we have now, and the lack of the diversity of the ideological gene pool is likely to make things a lot worse. All the kids in Utah will go to Mormon schools. That would be worse than what we have now.

     

    Depressing, I know, but what you're talking about won't work...

    Well for starters, children will get indoctrinated with religion regardless of what school they go to.    The big difference with public schools, is that not only are they being dumbed down but they are also indoctrinated by the state in public schools.

    Further, I said the promotion of:  Rational Private Schooling, Homeschooling, and the Voucher Program.   

     Unless responsible and well-meaning parents are armed with the philosophical knowledge to be able to choose a rational educational method for their children i.e., a type of educational method that will fully prepare their children for successful adult life then it is quite likely that the results will be just as disappointing for them as for those parents who have left their children’s education in the hands of the state.

     

    There are plenty of Rational private schools out there...     Thanks to Rand, and Leonard Peikoff's "Teaching Johnny to Think: A Philosophy of Education Based on the Principles of Ayn Rand's Objectivism"  I did the research on the Montessori school my daughter will be going to.

     

    The academia-jet set coalition is attempting to tame the American character by the deliberate breeding of helplessness and resignation—in those incubators of lethargy known as “Progressive” schools, which are dedicated to the task of crippling a child’s mind by arresting his cognitive development. (See “The Comprachicos” in my book The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution.) It appears, however, that the “progressive” rich will be the first victims of their own social theories: it is the children of the well-to-do who emerge from expensive nursery schools and colleges as hippies, and destroy the remnants of their paralyzed brains by means of drugs.

    The middle class has created an antidote which is perhaps the most hopeful movement of recent years: the spontaneous, unorganized, grass-roots revival of the Montessori system of education—a system aimed at the development of a child’s cognitive, i.e., rational, faculty. - Ayn Rand 

    “Don’t Let It Go,”

    Philosophy: Who Needs It, 214

     

    For me A PROPER RATIONAL Education would resemble:

    Montessori education in Primary school.

    Cognitive education in Middleschool, and

    Cognitive, autodidact and specialization education for highschool.

    A good video on the connections of Objectivist philosophy and Montessori education can be found here:  

    10349897_10152524635380020_1013989818750

     

  7. Education.   Specifically the elimination of Public schooling, and the promotion of Rational Private Schooling, Homeschooling, and the Voucher Program.   

     

          Aside from the students who learn & retain little practical knowledge from public school,  experience failed classrooms, bad test scores and delinquent behavior... modern education even in the best of schools and under the best of circumstances, works to usurp the student's capabilities for independent thought and destroys their ability to think, understand, and integrate knowledge that students require to function properly as Teens and Adults.  

     

         Fighting for reason in a society that breeds mindless zombies from cradle to College Diploma via public or progressive education is already an uphill battle.  This is one of the biggest roots of the problem in our society today. The purpose of Education is supposed to be the communication of knowledge and the training in methods of thinking in order to transition a child into a fully functioning independent adult, however this is the opposite of what is taking place in schools.

    So long as the destruction of the minds of students continues on a national level- We LOSE.

     

     

    Marketing wise, Education of one's children is one of the most profoundly selfish issues every parent in the country will ever experience. Parents buy book after book, research schools, participate in programs, etc...   From the poorest to richest household, parents will give one of their kidney's if it means their child will have a good education, but WHAT is considered a good education, and WHAT is important to my child is still very much a matter of confusion for the families of this country.  This is a market that is constantly begging for information and pleading for a solution...

     

    And how big and important is this market?

     Family households with children make up nearly 50% of this country! Nearly 50%!
     

    If your goal is to promote REASON, then this can not be overlooked.
     

    • Education is the reason for the existence of a mass level Anti-conceptual mentality.
    • Education is responsible for rampant delinquent behavior, apathy & loss of rational goals and interests.
    • Education is the reason subjectivism has ran carte blanche through our society.
    • Education is why "Johnny can't think."


    As for the market of ideas...

    • Parents very much selfishly care about their children's education.
    • Parents know SOMEthing is wrong, but don't understand what or why.
    • Parents are open minded and constantly are seeking to understand.
    • They make up a huge % of the population.
    • The homeschooling movement is already booming in this country as a revolt against public education.


    And maybe most importantly, parents WILL take action when they KNOW what best for their children. This is a actionable consequence. Educating parents CAN have a measurable effect that helps us all.   

    Which may mean, putting their kids in Montessori or homeschooling, and or fighting for the Voucher program in their state.  Further if parents understand the reasons why public and progressive education is bad and rational education is good, they will automatically be introduced to objectivist ideas.


     

  8.  What catastrophe has been recently averted with your company or with a project your company was involved with, of any kind -- huge client loss, construction mistake/delay, highway close call...

     

    Landstar is one of the safest carriers in the nation(also one of the most expensive),There is not much that I as a Broker/Agent/Dispatch can do to stop it from happening, but it does happen.  

    This year I've had two drivers wreak.   One who we believe fell asleep and ran off the road with a Hazmat shipment in Arkansas, and the other on a Oil rig move who crashed a Crew House into a Bridge in WV..  Was over by just two inches and shaved the whole roof of the building.

    Here's what the inside of the Trailer with hazmat looked like afterward:

    http://pasteboard.co/28CYprNw.png

    http://pasteboard.co/28D4eiE4.png

  9. While not to the scale outlined in the initial post, any time one does grocery shopping, refills the fuel tank, or for that matter, makes just about any purchase from around town, transportation is responsible in some way for getting the product there. What's not to love, from that aspect.

     

    When traveling interstate, many weigh stations indicate that truckers need weigh in. How much does this add to the cost of products due to time lost traveling to a destination? I know the question is quite broad, and might only be indictable by a percentage per truckload, or perhaps per stop, which may add up varying with the distance required to deliver, or may be inapplicable in as specialized as the solutions are that you are involved with.

    Practically nothing...   But its not the stops that cost money...   Its the HUGE fines the DOT will slap on a driver and company for anything and everything.     If your windshield wiper doesn't look brand new, one of your tires are a little light, your paperwork, logs, shippernumber, etc etc etc etc... Boom!  Say goodbye to money.  

    This is one of the reasons for the extremely high industry turnover rate.  

    Every driver you see is most likely new and in his first year or two of driving.    (Which Ironically makes the roads LESS safe.)

  10. How does that thing make a turn? :o

    HA, Carefully, with a lot of experience and the help of Escorts in the front and the back of the truck.   Specific routes have to made to ensure safety.

    Most of the guys that have the experience, equipment, and capital to be able to run loads like that have all been in the industry for 25+ years.   And considering truckers have a HUGE turnover rate those guys are extremely rare.

    That particular piece is a 292,000#(pound) Plate Girder hauled from Van Buren AR to the new World Trade Center vehicle security building. 

     

    What's the most interesting industry project related to your business right now? The most interesting project you were involved with recently? What catastrophe has been recently averted with your company or with a project your company was involved with, of any kind -- huge client loss, construction mistake/delay, highway close call...

    How far do regulations reach in your company's productivity? For exampl, OSHA regulates warehouses, but when OSHA is away, mostly their influence disappears. The biggest expense is probably the safety lady's salary, and even she is useful sometimes. So for example, is a permit needed with every major highway transport? Are regulations tedious to comply with?

    Good question.

    Well the Biggest projects usually consist of Oil rigs for moves my boss manages on a regular basis.  Most of them from TX to ND.

    Currently I am dealing with a liquidation of printing plant parts from NY to Mexico.   In fact it may be a sign of the times that the majority of my projects are plant foreclosures, liquidations, or relocations   

    The most interesting project is probably the one I am on right now because of the serious issues I am having with it which also leads into your regulatory questions.    

    These shipments move this Monday and Tuesday.

    It is a smaller project that I got plenty of money on(freight gets bid on) needing only 4 FLATBED trucks, with easy, legal sized, light weight freight,  going from New York to Tijuana, Mexico. 

    Should be easy...  Here is where it goes downhill.

    For starters thanks to Regulations American trucks can no go into Mexico.  The freight has to be dropped by the American carrier and picked up by a Mexican carrier.   So all of my trucks have to go to San Diego, and then let a Mexican carrier TAKE THEIR trailer into another country and bring it back.

    I'm sure you can see why someone would like that too much.

    Then since industry has effectively died in the NorthEast, fewer trucks with Deck trailers take loads going that direction, thus limiting available capacity.

    And the worst of it all is East Berlin's *cough* I mean California's War on truckers.   Thanks to tightening environmental regulations by California the vast majority of the trucks in the country are no longer legal to drive in that state.   Since the new regulations were put in place even the few trucks who have converted over to their regulatory standards have been experiencing strong mechanical trouble, and breakdowns(which the drivers have to pay for) even for newer trucks..   Further incentivising more drivers to say "Fuck California". 

    So even though I have a lot of money I can pay drivers to take these loads...  No one can or will go there.    How much money you ask?   I'm offering to pay our drivers $7600(minus fuel expenses and fees) to drive 2500 miles, or about 4-5 days of work.

    I am currently making phonecalls to find drivers to cover these shipments as im writing this, and will probably be working all weekend to do so.

     

  11. I know Rand and the Objectivist community have a little love with the Transportation Industry so I'd thought I would answer any questions people might have.

    A little Background:   

    I work for Landstar Transportation:


    I provide and manage specialized transportation solutions for clients in Oil & Gas, Manufacturing, and Construction industries in US and Canada. I work mostly with Hazardous Materials and Over-Dimensional Projects.

    Previous projects have encompassed everything from drill pipe to entire oil & gas drilling rigs. Project specs have encompassed width up to 16' and weight up to 150k lbs.

    Ask me Anything!

    18b1aa74-f89e-11e2-a740-22000a91e9a7-lar

     

     

     

     

  12. So the site wasn't designed to be a April Fools Joke. It was created by my friend "nate" as practice in his first year as a programmer. Some of the site works and it is quite funny. He keeps it hush hush because he just uses it for himself but it actually partly works inside the login.

    So me and another programming buddy have decided prank his test site with hundreds of new users.(mostly under usernames joke usernames)

    If you guys would like to join in the fun... Well... It will be fun. Enjoy.

    www.natebook.com

  13. 2010 has been GREAT! Insurance, sales, marketing, going to Nashville and starting my own business, and making it back to Northwest Arkansas for an awesome job and some great business projects. Now that it is offically December I wanted to post a little of what im working on and what I am expecting out of 2011. Long story short. I'm expecting alot!

    Right now I am in a great position to launch all the big money making projects i've been waiting so long to work on and accomplish. Meanwhile I have a great team of friends and talent around me. Gideon Reynolds is a very tallented graphic designer who has an amazing work ethic and ambition to succeed and enjoy life like no other. Gideon has created artistic masterpieces and is always working on expanding his skills.(http://digitaldavinci.net/) Spencer dailey has for much of his life been an idea guy like myself as well as a night audit job to free up time. Spencer has an incredible education in tech business start-ups that rival the teams that make it to Y-combinator. He is our future Leo laporte and has already launched an impressive business called http://Bumperize.com/ with another business partner "Jared" who is a programming Genius. And my newer friend Nathan. I've only known Nathan for about a month now and i've yet to find such a young and talented jack of all trades. Nathan doubles as an artist, technical designer, and programmer. Did I mention that he just started learning programming within the last two months? Here are two sites of his: http://seshit.com/ http://natebook.com/

    Not only do I think that 2011 will be a golden year for myself, but for my friends Gideon, Spencer, Nathan. Why?

    8423_189985465019_649875019_4308073_6188890_n.jpg

    Gideon has always had a passion for both martial arts and graphic design. Even though our Martial arts business plan has been put on hold, it hasn't stopped either of us pursuing things that can make us money with less time and capital. Gideon has a graphic design business and website that he is wanting to finish and promote. I am about to hire Nathan to do the finishing touches on Gideons site. I can then market Gideon's business for him and make sure he's got all the Graphic design work he needs till he has enough money to hire other designers to do the work for him.

    Spencer already has a operational tech business(Bumperize) he is working on as well as working on a project with me Called FixPUNK. FixPUNK as it stands now is only a small tech blog but we have plans to expand not only the blog but to also create an online entrepreneurship community. The end goal is to create something like a entrepreneurship incubator; a place for you to network with other Startups, Technical, & Non-technical founders, share startup info and education. As well as gather support for your startup from other business, startups, and Angel investors.

    Nathan's intentions are unknown, but we know he has quite a few projects going on himself. He's probably the man I'll be paying to finish Gideon's website programming. His abilities as a designer, and rapid advancement as a programmer is nothing short of impressive. We're hoping that he will become a even better programmer in the months to follow and possibly(if he wants to) become a intricate part of our projects as "lead designer" as well.

    As far as I go. I am working on 3 projects: (www.fixpunk.com) FixPUNK(with spencer), ConsumerCause, and my own low cost resale business called Business Scrappers. At the rate progress is being done with these projects I can't even imagine where I will be 6 months from now. It can't be anything short of amazing though. Needless to say I think 2011 is going to be my year to shine. I'm already planning on living life to the fullest in 2011.

    Starting with throttle. ;)

    n649875019_2731278_1700855.jpg

    Then getting back to photography! (my photo btw)

    n649875019_160128_3552.jpg

    Music(Both playing and attending)

    77176_10150098023415020_649875019_7731955_1551878_n.jpg

    And Travel

    156360_10150098010365020_649875019_7731780_4324036_n.jpg

  14. Hacking is a violation of people's rights as far as I'm concerned.

    There is no such this as collectivized rights or government rights. Using force(or in this case hacking) to obtain information on an abusive and criminal government is far from immoral. If fact. I would consider that pretty damn moral.

  15. You realize this is sick — don't you?

    I do. Thats why I posted it. I was a dog. But she had shit friends. Druggies, alcoholics, and punks. I became a guard dog, but I never had realized that she really was one of them and I was the only one out of place.

  16. Maybe it's not so easy. Not when she is the most exciting experience you've ever known - and the thrill of it, and the resulting sublime intimacy, spirals into an addiction.

    I can't make a call about this woman since I don't know nearly enough about her.

    I can only relate my own similar situation 6 years ago. This was a woman who knew all my buttons. Demanding as hell, and (beneath an incredible charm), as cold as ice. I hadn't experienced jealousy ever since my 20's - but she did it.

    There is an old Jim Croce song that comes close: ...."and for every time that we spent laughing, there were two times that I cried.

    You were trying to make me your martyr - that's one thing I just couldn't do; oh baby, I can't hang upon no lover's cross for you."

    In my case, and I must emphasize this, in my case, I have no doubt I was dealing with a fully developed narcissist - and I provided what the psychologists call her "Narcissistic Supply".

    Anyhow, 2 years in, followed by 2 more getting out.

    Landon, IF this rings loud and clear,( and even if she just isn't good for your sense of self), I'd suggest running - no matter how much it hurts for now.

    That sounds Identical to my issue, even more so a problem because a long time ago she was the reason I had gained alot of self esteem and was also my first for everything. She is the only girl ive ever been jealous about. I took MMA and got good at it for the sole reason of hurting anyone who touched her.

    On the bright side. I just met someone last night who impressed me alot. A 25 year old Ball Room dance instructor who loves studying Greek history and mythology and has the most beautiful bedroom eyes Ive every seen.

  17. I think I stick pretty much by the book, understand and hold a good philosophy, and live a good life. However, I have a ex-fiancé whom I had my one and only ever self sacrificial relationship with. Needless to say it didn't work. I was devastated and much of what I went through is what lead me to reevaluate my moral and ethical compass toward a rationally selfish ideal. My problem is every time my ex is around I crumble... I lose all self esteem, self respect, and I end up as this broken heep of a jealous man and it devastates me for weeks. What is even worse is that we still causally maintain our sex lives and have so for 4 years. I can't seem to understand why I am so irrational with this and how I can fix it. Any advice?

  18. We do have the RIGHT to take our own lives. As such we also have the right to defer that action to someone else. In the case of assisted suicide it makes since... Where a duel is irrational. However we do also have the right to be Irrational as long as terms are met. I had a girlfriend once that wanted me to choke her and beat the fuck out of her during sex. Regardless how irrational. I was permitted to do so. I declined BTW.

    The point is. Both men(or women) have ownership over their own lives. If they want to jump of a cliff together or shoot at one another it is their lives and their business. End of story, goodnight.

  19. Its my first truly deep philosophical poem. I wanted to portray the emotional position and the end result of a rule of mysticism. The emphasis on feelings over fact, evasion over truth, and in the end the "parasite's" belief that his will should rule all of man. The poem is set at that breaking point where he the man of true guilt can no longer hide from who he is and what he has done because he has destroyed the whole of man and what it means to be human.

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